The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for measuring mass emissions from a vehicle exhaust and, more particularly, to such a mass emission measurement utilizing dilution of the vehicle exhaust with air.
A vehicle exhaust emission analysis technique conventionally measures the concentrations of the component gas emissions in order to determine compliance with environmental standards. Gas concentration measurement, however, is inadequate to determine the true emissions of the vehicle. In order to measure true emissions, it is necessary to measure the mass of emissions and not just the concentration because the concentration is only one parameter of the amount of pollution generated. In order to measure mass emissions, it is necessary to also determine volume, or flow, of the exhaust gas.
One known teaching for measuring mass emission directly measures the flow of gases from the tailpipe using a technique which accounts for the operating environment. This technique is difficult to carry out because the presence of exhaust gases and high heat provides a hostile testing environment. Furthermore, an adapter must be provided which can tightly connect with a wide range of tailpipe configurations. This technique is especially difficult with dual-exhaust vehicles.
Another known technique measures concentration of exhaust gas which has been diluted. This technique requires expensive instruments because they are measuring component gas concentrations which have been diluted to very low concentrations. Furthermore, variations in exhaust gas volume causes concentration of the exhaust gases to vary, which must be taken into account in order to produce accurate results. The analyzer accuracy range must be sufficient to accommodate a low exhaust volume with a vehicle having a low pollution output as well as a high exhaust volume in a vehicle having a high pollution output. This wide sensing range adds to the expense to the instruments. Another known technique for measuring vehicle mass emission uses a carbon dioxide tracing method which determines flow rate by comparing the measured concentration of carbon dioxide in the undiluted vehicle exhaust gas with the measured concentration of carbon dioxide in a dilute mixture of exhaust gas and a diluting gas. The difficulties with such approach are two-fold. The first is that carbon dioxide is present in very low concentrations in ambient atmosphere, such as approximately 400 ppm, or 0.04%. This very low concentration of carbon dioxide in ambient air is inadequate for use in providing an accurate analyzer calibration point. When testing a vehicle, the analyzer would be operating in the single digit percent carbon dioxide range. Therefore, the use of ambient air for calibration would provide too much uncertainty at the calibration point. As a result, a source of carbon dioxide must be provided as a consumable gas in order to accurately calibrate the dilute carbon dioxide analyzer and measure dilution ratio.
The measurement of carbon dioxide in the dilute mixture of vehicle exhaust and dilution air requires filtration of the dilute mixture prior to passing the mixture over the carbon dioxide analyzer, typically a non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) analyzer, in order to remove water vapor from the dilute mixture. Such filtration requires a complicated gas-sampling system, including pumps, filters, solenoids, and the like. Without such filtration, life expectancy of the carbon dioxide sensor is reduced. However, the extra gas-sampling system adds significant cost to the analyzer. Additionally, the delay attendant to such sampling system creates a phasing between concentration measurements taken of the undiluted exhaust gas and those taken of the dilute mixture. The alignment of dilute and undiluted concentration is critical to the accuracy in the assessment of mass emissions. As the complexity of the sample system increases, the more difficult and costly it is to achieve acceptable alignment levels. As a result of cost and complexity, such technology has been practiced only in laboratory settings.
Accordingly, the need exits for a rugged, inexpensive vehicle exhaust mass emission analyzer which provides accurate measurement of vehicle mass emissions without a consumable calibration gas that can be used in laboratory and field emission testing programs.